DICE promises 60Hz Tickrates in Battlefield V's PC servers at Launch
Over the past number of days, there has been a lot of hubbub surrounding the server tick rates of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, with PC players claiming that the game's popular Battle Royale "Blackout" mode features a downgrades server tick rate, which was lowered from 60Hz in the game's early betas to a measly 20Hz.

For context, a server tick rate is the number of times that a game server will process data and distribute it to players. Higher tick rates will make online games more responsive, with game servers responding faster to player inputs while the game world updates more frequently. This factor is extremely important in fast-paced shooters like Overwatch and CS:GO.

DICE has confirmed that Battlefield V will be targetting the same tick rates as Battlefield 1, with a 60Hz tick rate on PC servers and a 30Hz tick rate on consoles. This is likely to improve over time, with smaller game modes supporting tick rates as high as 120Hz in smaller game modes.

Call of Duty is commonly known as a "Twitch shooter" by many gamers due to the title's fast-paced nature, making the game's low tick rate extremely disappointing to gamers. Low server update rates increase the chances of two players simultaneously killing each other, or other strange occurrences, as the time between server ticks can leave a lot of wiggle room for such events to occur. This is why skill-based games require responsive servers, especially within a competitive environment.

At this time it is unknown whether or not Treyarch will be able to increase the server polling rate of Black Ops 4, especially given the size and scale of their popular Blackout game mode. Even so, casual players are unlikely to notice the difference.

Back in 2016, Blizzard upgraded their overwatch servers to handle tick rates of 63Hz, offering a 3x increase over the game's original 21Hz tick rate. This change has significantly improved the game's responsiveness and made the game a lot more viable as an eSport.